


Rules to being a Kid

by SaluWriter



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Crying, Doing this and not sleeping, Gen, Hearing Problems, Hurt Peter Parker, Parent Tony Stark, Parental Feels, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is a Mess, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Scared Peter Parker, Sharing a Bed, Tinnitus, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, little bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:27:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21984421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaluWriter/pseuds/SaluWriter
Summary: He was sixteen, he wasn’t supposed to creep up into an adult’s room by this age, let alone his mentor. He knew the right thing to do was to knock and wait patiently outside, right? This didn’t seem right, then again knocking on the door didn’t seem exactly right to him either…But opening his door without permission was definitely a rule he was breaking.So why was he staring at the billionaire in his sleep?
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 12
Kudos: 307





	Rules to being a Kid

**Author's Note:**

> An actual thing that happened to me. But have I gone to the doctor to try and get better?
> 
> Course not
> 
> What do I do instead?
> 
> Write about it and make Peter suffer.
> 
> Hey in the end it all works out- he has a happy ending, we get our Tony and Peter familial love
> 
> It’s a win win.

He didn’t know what to do.

Peter blinked in the dark. He could barely hear his own breathing as it came in and out at an unsteady pace. He bit his lip and felt something pool in his stomach. It made him fidget and squirm, feeling nervous and anxious as he moved. He didn’t like this. He wanted it to stop. 

It’s almost been a week since it happened. It was his last day of school, a minimum day to be in fact. Everyone was excited and had smiles on their faces, even Flash seemed to be in a less pissy mood and didn’t bother Peter all day. It was safe to say it was a good day. 

Until the final couple hours of school that is. 

Their principal surprised them that week with a talent show on Friday. Anyone could enter, it was just a day to have fun after all. Peter recalled watching one of his classmate’s tap dance, as well as four or five other girls sing with voices he didn’t know they had. It wasn’t until a senior class decided to have their band play, things went downhill.

He remembered everyone clapping and shouting along with the rest of the students. For some reason, the fact that they made a rock version of Jingle Bells seemed to make everyone laugh and join in.

There was a guitar player who suddenly took the solo, and everyone started clapping for him as he went on. It wasn’t until he played the last of his chords, he felt something terribly wrong fill his head. 

It was loud, ear piercing, and just downright painful.

He remembered his whole body tensed up before he bent down slightly, covering his ears. Ned and MJ quickly stopped their clapping and looked at Peter, giving him a concerned look. 

After a quick second of checking, he could still hear everything. He straightened himself out and showed them a thumbs up, that he was ok.

They bought it.

Even he bought it. 

After the band had stopped playing, everyone mingled around the gym, for there was one hour of school left. Luckily for the students, the teachers didn’t plan any classes, so they were just ordered to stay inside until they’re parents picked them up, or if they had a ride. 

MJ and Ned quickly left, after all, they lived pretty near the school, so their parents arrived on time with no problem.

Peter, on the other hand, received a call from his aunt. It was a simple call, where he was informed he would actually be spending his week off at Tony’s tower, as she was stuck in California due to all the snow that was piling up. He was pretty bummed she wouldn’t make it in time for Christmas, but he couldn’t help but feel excited at the fact-

A literal billionaire wanted him to come over. 

So he waited patiently for about ten more minutes. And soon enough, the man came, wearing a tie and suit, even if it was snowing. Peter shook his head at the sight and quickly ran through the snowy grounds, grabbing the front door and quickly jumping inside, not wanting to let any of the cold flakes inside the expensive audi.

That’s when it happened again.

The radio was on a comfortable volume, Peter knew this for he knew Stark was somewhat protective over his super hearing, yet his head thought otherwise. The loud ringing came again, and this time his hands clenched the seat around him as it made his vision swirl. He breathed in sharply and looked around him, desperately trying to find something that could stop the noise.

“Kid, are you alright?”

He whipped his head towards the man. The ringing in his ears popped at the sudden movement, and all of a sudden he heard muffled, echoed sounds around him. His left ear could barely pick up anything. 

He bit his lip. He shouldn’t bug him if it wasn’t necessary right? Right.

“I’m fine Mr. Stark, just- can’t believe I can spend the week over.” He said in a cheery voice, hoping the man would buy it. 

He gave a skeptical glance, before he rolled his eyes, driving out onto the snowy road, “You can hardly believe anything I do Pete.” He said with a chuckle.

And the week went on as so. 

Peter thought the dull ringing would disappear eventually, but it didn’t. It grew into a dull static noise that was very loud whenever he entered a quiet room. He couldn’t hear himself think, and he desperately looked for something in the room that would create some surrounding noise. Whenever the noise happened that is.

The headphones that Stark designed for him seemed to work in the beginning. Yet the dull static soon grew too loud and echoed in the headphones. Now he can’t even last twenty minutes with them, which deeply upset him.

Not even on Christmas day, the noise let up. It only grew louder, more painful. It sent waves of headaches throughout his day, and it pained him to fake a smile whenever he opened another present. 

Sure he adored them, but the static buzzing in his ears couldn’t help but not be ignored. He couldn’t enjoy his own gifts the man had gotten him.

It was the night after Christmas now, almost a full week without a good night’s rest. He was becoming restless and he had the urge of throwing himself on the floor or even smashing his head through the wall. Heck, he wished he would have the dreaded nightmares of The Vulture again just to get rid of this noise. 

His tired eyes looked to his clock in the room, 3:12.

_‘Lovely Parker.’_

He scrubbed his ears again, feeling his skin create the noise through the quiet. The static noise only seemed to rise in volume level, to a point where he let a small whimper escape his lips. 

He raised both of his hands as pressed them on the sides of his head, praying for the noise to stop hurting him. He just wanted to have a peaceful week, a week without Spider-Man, a week without worry, just a week of rest. Cause that’s what he needed, rest.

His ears echoed with the noise now.

Having enough, he forced his body up to sit on the bed. The static in his head filled his vision, his eyes grew heavy and tired, feeling like he was going to tip over.

He forced his body to cooperate with him. He swung his legs over to the side and quickly padded over to his door. Being as quiet and gentle as he possibly could, he opened the door and peeked his head out, seeing the dark hallway glow in its usual blue hue. 

Peter rubbed his eyes and backed away for a moment, thinking if it was really worth bugging the man. He didn’t want to seem childish, but then again, the pain was becoming too unbearable. What was the right thing to do? He sniffed and looked back to his bed.

 _‘No, this couldn’t be right.’_ He thought. 

A loud popping in his ear made him push forward out of his room.

The buzzing continued to prowl around his head. It made his body sway back and forth at the pressure as if it were trying to make him hit the ground with a thud. He just wanted to sleep, he wanted it to stop, he wanted it to go away…

He blindly let his hands press against the wall, helping him aid his way towards the billionaire’s room. The night sky provided him enough light when he reached the common room. The shining buildings and cars created different shadows as he passed. If he weren’t so occupied by reaching Tony, he would have probably stopped and stared at the weird formations of silhouettes that were in the room.

He let out a quiet sigh as he felt another handle reach his grasp. It was cold, felt like ice to his fingertips. He bit his lip, already feeling a wave of emotions try and escape his hold. He felt **humiliated**. 

He gently pressed down on the handle, the door clicked open, letting the outside light enter the man’s room. 

The thin streak of light hit one of his broad shoulders, the rest of his face was turned on the opposite side of the pillow, buried deep in the plush pillows. 

What scared Peter was the fact he couldn’t hear him breathing properly. With his super senses, he was usually able to hear him snoring if he was a floor down, but now, he could barely hear the steady breaths of his mentor. 

His fingers started scratching his hand. 

This _wasn’t_ **_right_**. 

He was sixteen, he wasn’t supposed to creep up into an adult’s room by this age, let alone his mentor. He knew the right thing to do was to knock and wait patiently outside, right? This didn’t seem right, then again knocking on the door didn’t seem exactly right to him either…

But opening his door without permission was definitely a rule he was breaking.

So why was he staring at the billionaire in his sleep?

_‘What was right?’_

His eyes looked down to the floor, before looking back to the hallway he came from. He could still go back-

His ears pulsed in pain. He shook his head, no, he would just be in the same place in the morning. In pain. He didn’t want that anymore. 

That’s it, he just wanted to wake up the man because he was in pain and doesn’t know what to do. That was reasonable right?

_Right_?

Something deep in his conscious answered, yet the static managed to push his sense of right and wrong away. 

He walked in. 

As he closed the door, he realized how warm and inviting the bedroom was. It was almost homey, and it smelled very comforting towards Peter. Smelled like Mr. Stark, he decided, which shouldn’t have been a surprise. He shifted in place, before walking cautiously towards the bed, pulling his curls. 

He breathed. “Mr. Stark?”

There wasn’t much of an answer, just a shift from the bed. Peter sighed and felt his ears echoing with the static, he closed his eyes and let out a shaky whimper. He felt so torn on waking up the man and trying to find a cure from this pain. He pursed his lips and tried again. 

“Mr. S-Stark?”

The bed shifted once again before it stilled. 

Peter sighed, ready to turn back to the door. 

There was a sudden creak of springs that caused him to lock eyes on the bed. Tony had suddenly pushed himself up, looking around the room with tired eyes before they landed on Peter. He blinked before squinting, having an unreadable expression.

Peter was just a few steps away from having an emotional breakdown, “Mr. Stark-!”

The man pushed the sheets off of him, revealing he was only wearing a pair of sweatpants. Peter tensed up even more, feeling shameful and guilty at the fact he had just walked into his mentor’s bedroom while he was asleep, not fully clothed.

_‘This wasn’t right.’_

“I’m- so so sorry I-”

Yet Tony only sighed and rubbed his face, looking at the teen. 

“It’s fine. Did you wet the bed or somethin’?”

“-know it’s late and I know I should have knocked- actually not even wake you up - but I just really needed you and I wasn’t sure if knocking was going to wake you up and- wait what?” Peter stopped mid sentence and stared at Tony. 

He had some type of smirk on his face. A tired one, but still nonetheless a smirk.

Peter blushed, “Mr. Stark! No why-!” briefly forgetting why he was here, he tried to push the man back down on the bed, feeling his cheeks heat up at the embarrassing question.

Tony only barked out a laugh and grabbed Peter’s hands, pushing back with the same strength the boy produced. Peter had the slightest thought of using his full strength and pushing him back, but it was quickly discarded when his ears sharply rose, and suddenly everything seemed loud.

He flinched. 

“Whoa whoa, you ok?” Tony asked, grabbing him by the bicep so that he wouldn’t fall down to the ground. Peter, stared at the man for a second, letting the pain vanish before shaking his head, having a guilty look. Tony furrowed his eyebrows and brought him down on the bed, making him sit right next to him.

“What’s wrong kiddo?”

Peter looked down to his hands, which were twitching slightly at the sudden question.

Was this correct?

“I-I’m sorry I-I just- My ears have been hurting and-”

“Your ears?” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked concerned. 

Peter sheepishly nodded, not saying another word.

The billionaire set his hand on top of Peter’s head, untangling the mess of curls, gently tugging and pulling on it gently.

“Hurting how?”

The boy gulped and looked up at the man, having a scared look. “Um er, like… I hear static a lot, and it just gets too loud sometimes…” He muttered out, rubbing up and down his shoulder. He leaned a bit into the man’s touch, liking the warmth of his fingers brush against his scalp.

Tony hummed and looked somewhat skeptical, “Did you blast your headphones Peter?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Immediately Peter shook his head, “N-No! No… uh- I did listen to loud music though…?”

He stopped brushing the boy’s hair, letting his hand rest in the forest of curls, “When and how?”

“Last day of school. There was a band and they played the music really loud. I heard my ears pop there but, just static after.” He said nervously, hoping that nothing serious was coming out of this. 

Tony, on the other hand, seemed to have a slight smile, yet there was still some concern in his eyes as he stared at Peter. “You probably have tinnitus kiddo.”

Peter gulped, “W-What?”

The man only chuckled, brushing his hair once again, which he just now noticed it was calming down his nerves and the pain in his ear. “It’s very common so don’t worry about it, is it too loud right now?”

The teen shuffled where he sat, “A-A bit. Will it go away?”

Tony made a face, which caused Peter’s insides to knot up, “Not necessarily, but it will become less noticeable eventually. It’s just really bad right now cause you’re so focused on it.” He gently said, tilting his head back at forth. 

“I have it too, it’s just tolerable now.” He put, having a smile. 

Peter couldn’t help but feel comforted at the moment. Yet the calm feeling vanished when there was a sharp popping sound in his left ear again. He winced.

Tony hummed and placed his hand over his ear, which caused some peace for the moment. He saw the man reach over to his nightstand and pull on the small drawer, picking up a bottle of ear drops and a cotton ball. 

“Here- go ahead and lay down on your right side.” He gently said, encouraging Peter to scoot back to the plush pillows. 

He, on the other hand, had a look of mortification on his face. He looked back and forth at the man and the pillows, having a confused look. 

“H-Here? Mr. Stark?” He whispered.

Tony shrugged, before frowning, “Do you want to go back to your bed? It’s fine with me Pete, just thought you wanted someone for tonight.”

For tonight? He can ask that? No, he- This _wasn’t-_

“It’s alright if I ask that?”

Tony made a face, raising his eyebrow in confusion, “Pete- We’ve known each other for about a year, last time you slept on my arm when we were working in the lab-”

“That’s different and that was an accident!” He interrupted having a bright blush on his face, which was still noticeable in the dark. Peter shook his head, swallowing down his thick saliva, he didn’t want to cry in front of him, but he was feeling he was going to.

“It’s a-alright? Mr. Stark, I went into your room without permission t-that wasn’t right-”

“You were in pain Peter, of course, it’s alright-”

“Isn’t that like breaking a rule though?” He asked, having a very sorry look.

“What? No- Pete- where are these thoughts coming from?” Tony questioned, letting his free hand settling on the boy’s shoulder. Peter, in turn, shivered at the touch, before he wiped his eyes, not letting any fresh tears trail down his cheeks.

“I-I didn’t know if waking you up was ok...”

The man scoffed, “Peter, of course it’s alright! Didn’t you ever ask you pare-”

He stopped.

Peter looked up, having a guilty look.

And that’s when Tony finally understood.

The man breathed in and sat up. Peter, lost his parents at a young age, probably when his parents were still coming into his own room to check on him, to see if he was either away or asleep. When they passed, he had his Uncle and Aunt… But that was different. 

Knowing Aunt May and how caring she was over Peter’s health and safety, Tony could suspect Ben was similar. So loving and protective over Peter, to the point where they still checked on him themselves. He pursed his lips, looking at Peter as he stared blankly to the ground, fingers twitching and body shivering. 

He didn’t know if he was **allowed** to ask for help _like_ _this_.

Tony slowly brought an arm over Peter’s shoulder, bringing him into a light hug, letting his head rest on his shoulder. “I’m sorry Peter- it totally slipped passed me. I’m sorry.” 

He truly meant it, maybe if he were just a tad bit awake, he would have caught on earlier.

Yet Peter understood too, he shook his head, forming a tight smile, “It’s fine Mr. Stark, I just… I-”

“ _Peter_ , can look at me.”

Peter blinked and slowly backed away from the man’s warm embrace, staring at him softly. The man’s look softened when he saw small tears dropping off his chin. He gently brushed his thumb underneath his eye, wiping them away.

“It’s perfectly alright to ask for help, ok? You are fine. Sure if Happy came in here acting childish and walking up to my bed that be weird and I’d fire him on the spot-”

Peter let out a watery laugh, “Mr. Stark-”

“But it’s perfectly fine for you alright? You’re still growing and it’s no surprise you young small infants still need help.”

The boy laughed and rolled his eyes, “I’m taller than you were sixteen Mr. Stark I’m not so small.”

Tony blinked and stared, before he lightly pushed him on the bed, letting Peter have his fit of laughter. “Of course you know that you fanatic.” He muttered out, unable to hide his smile. 

Peter continued to laugh, having both tears of sadness, stress, and joy escape him. Tony sighed, still showing a smile.

“Alright alright I get it I’m a midget, lay on your side, I need to put these drops.” He ordered the teenager, who obliged, having a thankful look in his eyes. 

The drops were put in quick (Peter flinched at the cold intrusion), with a small piece of cotton gently in his ear to subdue the sounds around him. 

Tony quickly grabbed the blankets and draped them over the two of them, already feeling the shared warmth lull him back to sleep. 

Peter, on the other hand, couldn’t help but focus on the static noise that continued to buzz around him. The pain in his left ear was almost gone, but the annoying noise continued to flood his ears. 

He figured it must have been obvious, because the man gently placed his hand behind his head and pushed him near his chest. 

He felt the steady soft heartbeats of the man. 

Peter sighed and fell asleep.

* * *

The boy felt gentle fingers brush through his hair. They were warm and soothing, and he couldn’t help but try and move his head towards the touch. The fingers ticked down his neck and looped back up to his ears. They massaged gently behind them, and Peter let out a hum of satisfaction.

He sighed, realizing he gave himself away, he was awake now. 

Gently he opened his eyes, blinking back the sleepy tears. Light was flooded into the room, which made the white room appear to be glowing. He squinted, and slowly felt heat rise to his cheeks.

He was hugging the man.

He backed away with a yelp

Tony laughed out loud, voice still thick in sleep, “Morning Pete.” He said, having a warm smile. 

Peter continued to blush but nodded his head, “Good Morning Tony-Mr. Stark!” He coughed as he choked over his own words. The man laughed in harder before he reached over to brush the boy’s curls away. 

“Did you sleep good?” He asked, having some type of parental look in his eyes. 

Peter felt his eyes heavy, his ears continued to play the static noise in his head, but the pain was gone. He was warm and tingling and felt light in his chest. He was allowed to get help, he learned. Something that was much more painful in his chest than the ringing in his ears. 

He smiled, “Yea…”

“Good! Want pancakes for this morning?...”

“Yeah… Thank you, Mr. Stark. J-Just… thank you.”

The man looked at Peter confused before he smiled. 

He understood. 

“No problem _kid_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yeet skeet! I’m still working on my long story don’t worry.  
> Just taking a while. 
> 
> Plus MHA is back and MMM yes-  
> Should I write about that? If anything I would write Bakugou & Midoriya OR Midoriya & Toshinori.
> 
> Just a thought.
> 
> Have any other tropes for Peter and Tony tell me- I still have a draft for the sequel for “Will I ever make a Sound”
> 
> And I also have a work in progress short story AU for Peter and Tony... (one that no one has done I still have zero works on it done when I search it up here-)
> 
> And lots of unfinished Peter and Tony sadness that I’ll eventually post.  
> We will see. 😂


End file.
